Category Archives: Car

Post navigation

Yesterday, I spent the day moving equipment in Socorro. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and I am almost finished. Perhaps I will be able to move onto other projects after I finish with this nonsense.

I commuted to Socorro with the Malibu. It will live down there during the semester, available for my commutes to Magdalena. It took a minute or two to get started, but then it ran the whole way without any hiccups.

In the evening, I commuted home via train and bus. JoAnna picked me up at the bus station, and we spent the rest of the night chatting and having a good time. We sat outside in the pleasant evening. Joey came out and showed us photos from the Joan Jett and Boston concert he had attended a few weeks ago.

Yesterday, I drove to Los Lunas to take my National Instruments Certified LabVIEW Associate Developer (NI-CLAD) exam. I had passed this exam years ago, but had let my certification lapse. Since letting my certification lapse, the exam changed. I did not do well on the practice questions, so I was not hopeful…

I PASSED IT ANYWAY!

It was a good day. After I passed the exam, I started driving home, only to realize that I had left things in the locker at the test center and had to return to Los Lunas to get them.

It was still an okay day. I then went to the junkyard at the south end of Albuquerque to browse around for car parts. I did that until the pouring rain hit.

I attended the Rio Rancho Seventh Day Adventist prayer and reading group in the evening, where we studied a chapter of The Desire of Ages concerning the raising of Lazarus.

Yesterday was my first day back in Socorro after my trip to Illinois. I started out the day by meeting with my department head to see what had been screwed up since I last set foot on campus. As it turns out, we have like two weeks to move our pilot scale plant equipment out of the storage space we were given last summer, after they forced us out of another space. Naturally, there is no funding, no help, and no new storage space to do all of this.

Anyway, after stewing about it for a bit, I realized that some of the administration is mentally handicapped, and it is not fair to belittle them. Me, being an engineer, I will figure out what to do. I started moving things around and sorting through our stuff. Even so, I started applying for other jobs. Not saying I will leave, but this moving every five minutes is starting to piss me off. If I move without additional pay, there will be no incentive for them to ever pay me extra again. If I don’t move, they’ll make it an issue at a more inconvenient time. Either way, with other offers, I will be free to tell them where to stick their job at any moment.

In the evening, I commuted home. I did find out that the bus schedule is going to change, and that, if I stay at NMT and Magdalena, my commute will be nearly an hour and a half shorter!

I did a little grocery shopping and headed home. I was able to jumpstart the Malibu, and it seems to be running just fine. I will probably take it for a spin in a few days, just to keep it running.

Yesterday, I spent the day in Albuquerque, as there was a National Instruments local user group meeting. The Albuquerque LabVIEW Network (ALVIN) met at a new location yesterday, and I was able to attend the meeting. This presentation was on developing test software with a long, extendable life, including how to plan for new upgrades and how to document for future use. I also made several contacts, including one fellow Techie. I ended up chatting with him well after the meeting had ended.

In the afternoon, I did a quick stroll around the mall to take photos of “Help Wanted” signs. I also replaced the battery in the Crown Vic. I also called and chatted with my parents for an hour or so.

In the evening, I sat outside with JoAnna, read some online magazines and did some writing in a series of short stories that I have been creating.

Yesterday, I started out the day by trying to photograph the International Space Station (ISS) pass at 5:22 am. I saw it, but was unable to photograph it, unfortunately. There will be another pass tomorrow, almost directly overhead (86 degrees), so I’ll try again.

After that, I ran for 6.67 miles. I hadn’t been on a run in quite a few days, so it felt good to get out and run again.

Once I returned from my run, I spent several hours weeding and cleaning up my garden. I have been disappointed in it so far this year, and have semi-avoided working in it for the last week or two. However, I cleaned things up yesterday, and will hopefully stay ahead of it in the weeks to come.

In the afternoon, I did some grocery shopping, though I will do more today. I also photographed my entire folder of car repair receipts and threw them away. I am trying to clean up my house and make it as paper-free as possible. I updated my car blog as I did this, so that I have that information in multiple places, electronically.

In the evening, I updated my DX4Win logs, and have now caught up on all of my amateur radio logbooks. I will start sending out QSL cards this week, and hopefully catch up on that project as well.

Yesterday, I started out the day by picking up the Crown Vic from the repair shop. $959.09 for a new throttle body. They kept my old one for a demonstration piece, but they showed me what happened. It had so much carbon build up that it didn’t open properly, and the solenoid was wearing out. That’s why it died on me on I-40.

After that, I had a nice lunch at Little Anita’s, which is a local New Mexican restaurant. I had not been there before, but I ordered the steak tacos and was not disappointed. Nothing special, but it was nice.

In the late afternoon, I submitted some more work for UpWork, clocking about another three hours. That contract is done for now, but I really liked doing the work. I was editing a text book. I am hoping they will send me more chapters at a later time.

In the late evening, I went to the Bible Study at the Rio Rancho Seventh Day Adventist church. I try to attend it on Friday evenings. We have made most of our way through The Desire of Ages by Ellen G. White.

In the evening, I updated my Industrial Archaeology blog, as well as started working on a YouTube Channel .

Yesterday, I dropped the Crown Vic off for a repair, as it was making a clicking noise, and it did die on me on I-40 a few days ago.

When I returned home, I spent a good part of the day working on an UpWork contract and cleaning up some stuff on my storm chase blog. I added an entire page dedicated to my tornado intercepts, as I have never bothered to total any of them up. It turns out I’ve seen 33 tornadoes, at least that I can remember, or wrote down that I saw.

Otherwise, it was an uneventful day. I got a few things done around the house as well, but nothing worth writing about.